Internet Pet Peeves

[mainegal]

If the internet peeves have turned into grammar peeves, here’s mine:

Her and her husband went to the beach (sentence should start with She)

Him and John bought ice cream. (sentence should start with He)

 

[kathrna]

This has been a very informative day!

Oh, and the use or "a" when "an" should be used. That bugs me.

Here's a question for all the teachers: do you use "an" in front of the letter "H"? I've seen signs on businesses that say "an historic Inn". That just doesn't seem right to me, but I'm not as hip on my grammar as my DS is.

 

[katscradle]

Well I just thought I would put in my two cents worth here.
#1. is the FW: emails, I do not need the same email from 6 people taking up space in my inbox. So I just delete them all.
#2. would be when a person cannot seem to take the time to type out what they want to say with using the short form.

Niki, this is a great thread!
Thank you!

 

[maroo]

uh oh - guilty here. I have a very hard time with apostrophes and whether it's in between or after or not all. I have a hard enough time without a spell checker on here. Spell checker has made me lazy. I need a grammer checker too.

Tell me about it. I just want to scream everytime I see CM's and ADR's.

Wow...

I am guilty of many of the things discussed on this thread! Maybe I need to go back to school before I post on the Podcast board again!

Lorie - Point well taken about - I know what he "means" if you spell it out...I just don't spell it out in my head. He is so darn cute!

I do say OMG in real conversation. I do use fairly regularly. But that is just me.

And CMs and ADRs just look funny without the apostrophe!

 

[rtobe]

I would like to add that emoticons do have some place in internet boards and IM type of communication as they are more interactive and instantaneously than an e-mail is. The purpose they serve is to communicate what may not be readily apparent from the text itself thereby providing the reader with the missing inflection or conversational clues since the "conversation" is not taking place face to face or via a telephone.

As for some of the other things mentioned here, on the advice of counsel I am invoking my Fifth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution

 

[OKW Lover]

Disclaimer: I am not an english teacher; nor do I play one on TV.

If the internet peeves have turned into grammar peeves, here’s mine:

Her and her husband went to the beach (sentence should start with She)

Him and John bought ice cream. (sentence should start with He)

I totally agree with this. But I've got another question that's similar. Should you say "Bert & I" or "Bert & me"? I learned it should be "Bert & I" (intentional reference to Maine humor but still an accurate illustration too) but I've heard "Bert & me" so often that I'm wondering if things changed in the 50 or so years since I learned that.

This has been a very informative day!

Oh, and the use or "a" when "an" should be used. That bugs me.

Here's a question for all the teachers: do you use "an" in front of the letter "H"? I've seen signs on businesses that say "an historic Inn". That just doesn't seem right to me, but I'm not as hip on my grammar as my DS is.

I always remember that you use an in front of a word that starts with a vowel, or a vowel sound. I know that doesn't help here unless the party usually drops the H in historic making it 'istoric.

Lets see, are there any horses that still need beating?

 

[kathrna]

Disclaimer: I am not an english teacher; nor do I play one on TV.


I always remember that you use an in front of a word that starts with a vowel, or a vowel sound. I know that doesn't help here unless the party usually drops the H in historic making it 'istoric.

OK, well that's the way I learned it, too. Perhaps it was the location of where I saw this "an historic Inn". It was when we lived in Miami, where the latino community is big. Perhaps this establishment was owned by a person of Hispanic background, thus making the sign correct, as Spanish don't say the "H" in words. "An (h)istoric Inn" I see the light now.

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

Todd, for sake of sanity, I could never continue to be friends with someone who says "OMG" in real life conversations.

OMG you wont be my friend.

 

[AnneR]

This is a great thread.

I must confess, I am pretty lazy and don't spend much energy on paying attention to details of emails and such.

I have to second or third the forwarding of group emails back to the group. As someone who can get several hundred emails in my official work inbox each day, I don't have time or patience to deal with the same information repeatedly.

On the overuse of OMG, I must admit, my brother and I use it to torment our teenagers. Nothing like having your dad or uncle say to you OMG TMI!

 

[wishspirit]

I love it when people from other countries use expressions that are unique. A woman from Britain posted that her friend was "snogging in public" - I had no idea what that meant, so I asked and learned something. I was ready when that Harry Potter book came out with all the snogging. (Making out.)

Yep, that sounds very British! I didn't know that Americans didn't use that word! We come out with a whole load of crazy expressions! However I never judge anyone else's grammar for 2 reasons: 1) I guess that most of it's American cultural differences 2) I am terrible with grammar and spelling myself!

I can't help but love this simile though: I can't help using it all the time!

 

[Tonya2426]

For all of us who have forgotten our grade school grammar rules, I suggest you check out the Grammar Girl website. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/default.aspx

It is very helpful for little refreshers on the finer points of grammar that seem to be lost these days. There is also a podcast! (Well, actually it is a podcast that gets put up on the website in text form.)

 

[thruthelookinglass19]

I loved reading this thread! I'm glad to know that I'm not the only "fuss-budget" when it comes to grammar, spelling, etc.!!

One of my biggest email peeves though, is when someone marks every single email they ever send "high priority". As if my colleague telling me that she has a 2pm meeting next week Thursday for 30 minutes that she must step away from her desk for is THAT important that she must send it "high priority".

 

[mainegal]

Should you say "Bert & I" or "Bert & me"? I learned it should be "Bert & I" (intentional reference to Maine humor but still an accurate illustration too) but I've heard "Bert & me" so often that I'm wondering if things changed in the 50 or so years since I learned that.

"Bert and I"

I test it by dropping Bert.

"Bert and I went to the beach."
"I went to the beach."

Both are good and sound correct.


"Bert and me went to the beach."
"Me went to the beach."

Not correct. Just doesn't sound right at all.
At least, I hope it doesn't sound right to all of you!



Grammar Girl lives in my iPod!
Grammar Girl also has a book.

 

[FireDancer]

"Bert and I went to the beach."
"I went to the beach."

Both are good and sound correct.


"Bert and me went to the beach."
"Me went to the beach."

Not correct. Just doesn't sound right at all.
At least, I hope it doesn't sound right to all of you!

This is exactly how I learned when to use I vs Me or she vs her, etc. Just take out the other person as though only the singular is doing the action and see which sounds correct.

The first person is also always last...He and I not I and He.

As far as a vs an I always learned that an is used only when the noun starts with a vowel or you are referencing an acronym:

An apple
An HMO
A bus

I know it is grammatically correct not to have an apostrophe after an acronym but I see it all the time. Technically though, if you aren't making the noun possessive it shouldn't have the ': "The CM's car" is correct. "The two CM's were great" is not.

Going away from the Internet pet peeves to grammar and spelling I have to say the one that always makes me cringe is asking "what is your favorite desert at Disney".

Florida is hot but it is way to humid to ever be a desert. Remember, there are 2 s's in dessert because you always want more. Which leads to another question, when purling a single letter is the ' used? I have always been taught you have.

I have to also thank you for this thread because it actually makes that 3 years of diagramming sentences in catholic school pay off. It makes me talk English more gooder

 

[froggy5657]

I hate when people are dating and on Facebook there is a back and forth between their walls saying

"I Love You"
"I Love You More"
"I love you the most"
"I love YOU the most"
"I love you so much *kissy noise*"
"I love you 5 times that *Kiss* *kiss* *kiss*"
Etc.

I am glad that you love each other, but can you not make it show up in my feed so I miss things that actually have meaning to MY life.

 

[siskaren]

As far as a vs an I always learned that an is used only when the noun starts with a vowel or you are referencing an acronym:

An apple
An HMO
A bus

Actually, just to be nit-picky (like we're not doing enough of that on this thread ), the reason an works in front of HMO is because when you say the letter "H" it starts with an "a" sound. CM and TV are also acronyms, but you wouldn't say an CM or an TV because neither starts with a vowel sound.

And just for the record, even though I am a grammar fuss-budget, one thing that I can never remember is when to use lay and when to use lie, so it's not like I'm perfect myself.

 

[adsrtw]

running every sentence and thought into one paragraph like it's verbal tourette's and not using any punctuation like you are too busy to actually compose an email and im supposed to have time to figure out what youre talking about or if this is you ee cummings phase and this is your way of exprsssing your individuality and you dont know how to add cute puppy pictures or you have no idea what all of the buttons on your computer do and then have to figure out why youre talking about a bad date last weekend in the middle of your email asking me where something might be located which might or might not be important and using this size font

Oh Kevin, are you sure you don't work for me? I get at least 2 emails daily like this.

 

[timmac]

Mine is absolutely...forwards of stupid urban legends without checking snopes.com (or the urban legend site of your choice).

If I get told one more time that flashing my car lights is a gang sign to kill me or I should not use deodorant lest I contract breast cancer, I will scream!

Totally in agreement with you here. I will usually politely (but firmly) reply back that this isn't true, include the snopes (etc) link, and ask that they please confirm such things before sending. In the special case of a warning about a new computer virus, I will usually add in my explanation that the forwarding of the message and subsequent clogging on inboxes IS the virus itself.

I've actually gotten a response back from one person claiming that "I don't have time to check into all these things", to which I pointed out that if she had time to forward it initially, then respond to me, that she had time to check it out in the first place before ever wasting everyone's time. I never got another forward from her except once when she noted that she had already checked it with snopes (and it was valid).

On the other hand, I know at least one friend who will occasionally send things to me individually asking for my opinion, before forwarding to anyone else.

For humor sake though, here's a great parody warning, if you've never seen it before: http://chainletters.net/chainletters/bad-times-virus-warning/

 

[timmac]

My pet peeves might be colored by the fact I am in the technology field so they are a bit broader reaching than user habits. My two pet peeves are the mainstream medias complete misunderstanding and misreporting on technology news (please see the coverage of the conficker worm) and the government's inability to understand it enough to really legislate it (please see DMCA).

Both very good points!

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I hate when people are dating and on Facebook there is a back and forth between their walls saying

"I Love You"
"I Love You More"
"I love you the most"
"I love YOU the most"
"I love you so much *kissy noise*"
"I love you 5 times that *Kiss* *kiss* *kiss*"
Etc.

I am glad that you love each other, but can you not make it show up in my feed so I miss things that actually have meaning to MY life.

You do NOT want to friend my DS and his young lady!